Horticultural farm food waste survey - have your say on food waste:

04 Dec 2015 - 04 Dec 2015by Julia Hall-Jones

Horticultural farm food waste survey - have your say on food waste:

Are you a farmer of fruit or vegetables?

After dedicating a lot of time and resources to growing a crop, farmers often cannot sell some of it, even though it is perfectly edible and delicious. This is often down to factors outside their control, like retailer policy, consumer preferences, market unpredictability, and the weather. At a time of price squeezes on farmers, food poverty, and worries about food security, this is no small problem. For the sake of farmers, consumers and the environment, reducing this waste is in everyone's interests.

This survey is the farming community's chance to speak out about the issue, and give their views on the causes of food waste - safely, anonymously and collectively. Likewise, if you feel you have little food waste on your farm, or whatever your views, we want to hear from you, so we can better represent the farming community’s views on this issue. The results will inform campaigns to change retailer policy and consumer culture to ensure farmers can get more of their edible produce to market, and will raise public awareness of the issues facing farmers.

Also, if this is of interest, here are some preliminary reports to the survey:

Have your say over food waste!

Farmers' responses to our survey on farm level food waste have already started flooding in, and they make astounding reading! The stunning results so far indicate an average of 11-27% of respondents' crop is wasted before it leaves the farm, and that retailer policies are often to blame for issues ranging from cosmetic standards to order cancellations and overproduction for fear of punishment in cases of undersupply. Join the conversation - do you have edible food grown on your farm that doesn't make it to the consumer's plate? Why doesn't it get there? Whether you have high or low waste, or whatever your views, we want to hear from you! Take the survey.